Mighty Ape selling own-brand TVs

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Mighty Ape selling own-brand TVs

backfiah

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#258495 7-Oct-2019 10:54

Mighty Ape has 3 TVs of their "gorilla" brand available for pre-order: https://www.mightyape.co.nz/electronics/audio-video/tvs-and-displays/all?q=brand%7Egorilla

32" for $329 (only 1366x768)
55" for $749 (4k, apparently HDR)
65" for $998 (4k, apparently HDR)

The 55" is $100 cheaper than the cheapest comparable panel on PriceSpy (a $849 TCL) and about $200 cheaper than a Panasonic.
The 65" is $100 cheaper than a Veon from "TechCrazy", or over $200 cheaper than a Konka from Harvey Norman.

Are these likely to be too cheap to be decent, or is MA managing to have better margins through directly importing them? They claim to be HDR, but I can't find anything about what standards of HDR they actually meet. The panel manufacturer is CSOT.

DarthKermit

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#2331766 7-Oct-2019 10:56

Who knows? Everything manufactured is a commodity now.

tehgerbil

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#2331767 7-Oct-2019 10:59

At less than 50 pixels per inch for the 32" that's incredibly rank, it would make TV look like minecraft.

nzkc

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#2331768 7-Oct-2019 11:01

Their code for the 55" LU8010 when Googled links to Kogan: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-50-smart-hdr-4k-led-tv-series-8-lu8010/.

So probably the same as that!

nickb800

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#2331774 7-Oct-2019 11:10

tehgerbil:
At less than 50 pixels per inch for the 32" that's incredibly rank, it would make TV look like minecraft.

Sadly very common for 32" TV - for example current Sony and Panasonic models have the same res. Presumably they've assessed that small TV buyers don't care about it or rather there's not enough buyers that care to make it a worthwhile product line.

For the record I do care, and am stuck with 32" TVs due to the size of my lounge

ShinyChrome

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#2331780 7-Oct-2019 11:18

Given that TCL owns CSOT, its possible that it shares a bit of componentry with the lower end of the TCL lineup.

Then again, with the badge engineered electronics its almost impossible to know exactly how much is shared without opening it up. The dual-core CPU, GPU seems be similar to lower end TCL's but again doesn't really mean much.

I also notice it says a Linux OS on-board, but no mention of Android TV.... so at worst case, some cheap implementation that can probably only support the apps it comes with.

ShinyChrome

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#2331785 7-Oct-2019 11:24

nzkc:

Their code for the 55" LU8010 when Googled links to Kogan: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-50-smart-hdr-4k-led-tv-series-8-lu8010/.

So probably the same as that!

Good spot, the literature looks pretty much copy-paste as well.

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wellygary

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#2331788 7-Oct-2019 11:24

Given that their volume must be tiny... probably in the hundreds ( maybe low thousands) this has to be a pure "sticker brand"..

bfginger

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#2331795 7-Oct-2019 11:38

You can still buy a 1080p 32" Samsung TV. Nothing you buy will be displaying 1080p 1:1 unless you can disable overscan which is not always possible in minor brand TVs.

I'd prefer 1080p on a 32" over 768p but the difference wouldn't be noticeable to the average person. The panel quality makes a bigger difference: I saw the 32" Panasonic F400Z and FS500Z side by side (along with the 32" 1080p Samsung) and the gap between the two was far larger than between the FS500 and the Samsung.

With TVs, cheaper doesn't mean better value for your money. Bargain TVs can end up costing you more when you take failure rates into account. TVs are a low margin industry so to undercut the big brands they normally cut corners in either build quality or electronics.

Edit, the talk about running "Linux" makes me think they may be TPVision TVs. They hold the licence for the Philips TV brand in New Zealand.

Their low end TVs don't run Android but Linux under the Saphi name with a GUI similar to Panasonic's Home Screen.

If so they should be better built than Veons, Konkas and TCLs but they're still budget TVs.

Zepanda66

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#2331875 7-Oct-2019 13:04

Neat. Would these be much better than the Veons? Quite reasonably priced too having HDR.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/7315955530.png

backfiah

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#2331879 7-Oct-2019 13:19

nzkc:

Their code for the 55" LU8010 when Googled links to Kogan: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-50-smart-hdr-4k-led-tv-series-8-lu8010/.

So probably the same as that!

Dick Smith (i.e. Kogan NZ) actually has some really sharp pricing on TVs too: https://www.dicksmith.co.nz/dn/c/televisions-resolution-4k-uhd/shop/televisions/led-tv/?order_by=price&facet-tv-resolution-filterable=4K+UHD&facet-led-type=LED&page=1

The 43" one with an LG panel and Android TV is $549 whereas their 58" one (Innolux panel) also has Android TV at $769 (plus delivery).

Rikkitic

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#2332016 7-Oct-2019 15:46

bfginger: You can still buy a 1080p 32" Samsung TV. Nothing you buy will be displaying 1080p 1:1 unless you can disable overscan which is not always possible in minor brand TVs. I'd prefer 1080p on a 32" over 768p but the difference wouldn't be noticeable to the average person. The panel quality makes a bigger difference: I saw the 32" Panasonic F400Z and FS500Z side by side (along with the 32" 1080p Samsung) and the gap between the two was far larger than between the FS500 and the Samsung. With TVs, cheaper doesn't mean better value for your money. Bargain TVs can end up costing you more when you take failure rates into account. TVs are a low margin industry so to undercut the big brands they normally cut corners in either build quality or electronics. Edit, the talk about running "Linux" makes me think they may be TPVision TVs. They hold the licence for the Philips TV brand in New Zealand. Their low end TVs don't run Android but Linux under the Saphi name with a GUI similar to Panasonic's Home Screen. If so they should be better built than Veons, Konkas and TCLs but they're still budget TVs.

I can't speak for today's models but I bought a 42 inch Veon on special from the Warehouse for $300 with three-year warranty a couple of years ago. It has been fantastic value. I use it as a monitor, also for YouTube and the like, and I couldn't be happier.

Edited to add: Yes, the audio is absolute crap. I run it through an old stereo amp and it works fine.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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rhy7s

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#2332184 7-Oct-2019 20:12

Rikkitic:
I can't speak for today's models but I bought a 42 inch Veon on special from the Warehouse for $300 with three-year warranty a couple of years ago. It has been fantastic value. I use it as a monitor, also for YouTube and the like, and I couldn't be happier.

Edited to add: Yes, the audio is absolute crap. I run it through an old stereo amp and it works fine.

Parents did the same. The default calibration and image processing were awful, hardware calibration and disabling a range of enhancements and overscan yielded a decent picture when used as a monitor and for Blu-ray.

bfginger

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#2332273 7-Oct-2019 22:29

Zepanda66:
Neat. Would these be much better than the Veons? Quite reasonably priced too having HDR.

We don't know for sure they're TPVisions until someone buys one and conforms it.

The Veons are bad TVs so almost anything is better than them. Think of how long the average TV is used for, upwards of a decade, so the least reliable brands are far more likely to fail before that. Failure rates from underengineered power supplies are on a bell curve so the first few years aren't representative. The average person wants to use internal speakers and the Veons' are unusable. Some units have uncorrectable colour temperature issues because of the overcooked backlights. I don't think it's worth the fuss of buying a bad product.

backfiah:
nzkc:

Their code for the 55" LU8010 when Googled links to Kogan: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-50-smart-hdr-4k-led-tv-series-8-lu8010/.

So probably the same as that!

Dick Smith (i.e. Kogan NZ) actually has some really sharp pricing on TVs too: https://www.dicksmith.co.nz/dn/c/televisions-resolution-4k-uhd/shop/televisions/led-tv/?order_by=price&facet-tv-resolution-filterable=4K+UHD&facet-led-type=LED&page=1

The 43" one with an LG panel and Android TV is $549 whereas their 58" one (Innolux panel) also has Android TV at $769 (plus delivery).

The "Toshibas" are rebadged Hisenses. Anything that looks that cheaply made when turned off I wouldn't touch.

The contrast ratio on the 43" Kogan will be lower than what a LG IPS TV would manage and it has 8watt speakers which is unacceptable if you're not going to use your own external speakers.

bfginger

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#2339960 17-Oct-2019 22:48

unless you can disable overscan which is not always possible in minor brand TVs.

Apparently LG now isn't allowing overscan to be turned off for standard definition content on some new OLEDs. I wouldn't consider any TV that doesn't allow overscan to be turned off.